that's all the time we have. i don't know what happened with time. follow me on facebook, twitter. our coverage on cnn continues now. thanks for watching. see you tomorrow. happening now. partisan battle lines are drawn as president trump stands poised to become the third president in american history to be impeached, setting the stage for a trial in the senate. out of line, senate minority leader chuck schumer slams mitch mcconnell for coordinating with the white house on the president's trial defense. schumer calls for top white house officials to appear as witnesses. twitter tantrum. president trump goes on a social media rampage, venting outrage at his looming impeachment and attacking those he sees as political foes, including house speaker nancy pelosi, and former

fbi director james comey. and falling for impeachment. americans speak out on the political crisis, showing the country deeply divided whether the president should be impeached and removed from office. i am wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." president trump is days away from becoming the third u.s. president to be impeached by the house of representatives. now, democrats are asking four white house officials testify in the subsequent senate trial, including the acting chief of staff, mick mulvaney and john bolton. senator chuck schumer making the request in writing to majority leader mitch mcconnell, and separately, blasting mcconnell for coordinating with the white house on the president's defense, calling that, i am quoting now, totally out of line. we'll talk about that and more with congresswoman debbie mccarsell.

our analysts are standing by. let's get the latest on the march toward impeachment. justice correspondent jessica snyder is with us. with impeachment a foregone conclusion, attention is on the senate trial. >> democrats are attempting to draw the line, laying out what they want when impeachment moves to the senate for a likely trial in january. top democrat chuck schumer saying he wants to hear from four key witnesses that could offer firsthand insight into the delay getting military aid to ukraine. of course, in the end, it comes down to the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and what the majority of republican senators want. tonight, top senate democrat chuck schumer is pushing demands how he wants a likely senate impeachment trial to proceed, in a three page letter to the majority leader mitch mcconnell, schumer lays out the length for opening presentations from both sides, starting thursday, january 9th, and says he wants

chief justice john roberts to issue subpoenas to four witnesses, former national security adviser john bolton, acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney, robert blair, and michael duffy, associate director for management security. >> these four witnesses have direct knowledge of the facts, particularly in regard to the delay in the aid to ukraine. i don't know what they'll say. maybe they'll say something exculpatory about president trump. >> whether witnesses are called will come down to what the majority in the senate decide, with 53 republicans, mcconnell could completely call the shots, if he secures support of all but two republicans. >> everything i do during this, i am coordinating with white house counsel. there will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this. we all know how it is going to end. there's no chance the president will be removed from office.

>> some senior republican aides tell cnn their view is where the house is where witnesses should have been called, and there's no place for more witnesses at the senate trial. majority whip senator john cornyn tweeted schumer should have talked to schiff, nadler, pelosi, they dropped their demands for the testimony, despite asking for those four witnesses, schumer says hunter biden has nothing to offer in the impeachment proceeding. >> i haven't seen a single bit, a sin 'til a of evidence that hunter biden would add anything other than show, circus, distraction. >> the house judiciary committee has articles of impeachment that will likely go to the house floor for a vote this week. the 658 page report explains the decision to charge trump with abuse of power and obstruction of congress and succinctly lays out democrats' overriding argument that president trump placed his personal political interests above our national

security, our free and fair elections, and our systems of checks and balances. he has engaged in a pattern of misconduct that will continue if left unchecked. republicans reiterated their case in the report with judiciary top republican doug collins saying the democrats' actions are unjustifiable will negatively impact future presidents. now we await any meeting between schumer and mcconnell to see if they can come to agreement. and mcconnell spokesman says a meeting will be planned soon to discuss contours of the trial. mcconnell saying he will have more to say tomorrow. >> thanks very much for that report. let's go to capitol hill. manu raju joins us. manu, any chance they'll subpoena the four administration officials? >> reporter: highly doubtful. they're signaling it is not the senate's job, talking to senate republicans today, the message overwhelmingly is that the house

should have pursued witnesses with court had the democrats wanted to pursue the witnesses. republicans argue they should have done just that, even if it had taken time. according to republicans, they say look, it is not a fact-finding job of a senate trial to go after witnesses that have not testified prior to now. they say they should review the evidence produced already by the house. i talked to the senate intelligence committee, asked if he wanted to hear from john bolton or mick mulvaney, his answer was no. we'll wait for what the response will be for mitch mcconnell when he has more to say tomorrow. wolf, the thing that could change the dynamics, any four senators could break ranks on the republican side if they choose, side with 47 democrats on the floor, and if a majority of senators vote to call witnesses forward, that could of course change dynamics from republican leadership. we're just not there at this moment. that will play out in days

ahead, particularly in january when we get into the trial, if members decide to hear from witnesses, perhaps that could change the dynamic. >> democrats, meanwhile, are fighting for details from mueller's russian investigation ahead of the impeachment trial. what's the latest on that front? >> reporter: the house filed a briefing in the federal appeals court demanding information, grand jury information related to the mueller probe. the argument from democrats is it could help with the impeachment inquiry. they're saying there's information relevant to the ukraine case, trump campaign member had some discussions involved with some ukrainians that could be helpful potentially to the overall case they're building against the president. the argument is they need secret grand jury information to form thinking on impeachment. we are unclear how the court will respond. plan to hear arguments next month. >> thank you. manu raju on capitol hill. at the same time, the white house is responding to the democratic call for witnesses in

the president's upcoming senate impeachment trial. chief white house correspondent jim acosta joins us from the white house. jim, what is the white house saying? >> wolf, the white house official line is that the president is unfazed by the likelihood he is impeached. the white house is responding to demand that new witnesses appear at the expected impeachment trial in the senate, but the white house is saying that request for new testimony proves the president didn't do anything wrong. with this week's expected impeachment vote hanging over him, president trump is lashing out in all directions, defending his personal attorney, rudy giuliani, who wrapped up a trip to of all places, ukraine. >> he sees what goes on, what's happening, he sees the hoax that happens when they talk about impeachment hoax or the russian collusion delusion, and he sees it. >> the president on a social media rampage, tweeting, retweeting attacks against

perceived enemies, tlincluding nancy pelosi. he tweeted that nancy's teeth were falling out of her mouth. the president 's allies are playing defense. the results of the latest to dig up dirt on joe biden. >> i know the element's cold. >> rudy giuliani acknowledging he was part of the push to oust the former ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, and search for biden dirt, saying i believe i needed yovanovitch out of the way. she was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody. gop senator lindsey graham isn't hiding where he stands in the upcoming trial in the senate that would follow impeachment vote in the house. >> i am trying to give a pretty clear signal, i have made up my mind. i am not going to pretend to be a fair juror here. >> graham urges the white house to agree to the speediest trial

possible. >> i tell the president, somebody ready to quit, get out of the way. you call the witnesses the president wants, they'll call mike pence and pompeo. >> they want four witnesses to testify, including mick mulvaney, and former national security adviser john bolton. no one has given a reason why they shouldn't testify. if president trump is so certain he did nothing wrong, what is he afraid of, what is he hiding when he says mulvaney, bolton or the other witnesses shouldn't testify. >> the president is furious over polls on impeachment, including one from fox news that shows 50% want him impeached and removed from office. one big problem for the president, the way he attacked the impeachment process raised serious questions. former fbi and cia director william webster, republican, posted an op-ed in "new york

times" questioning mr. trump and william barr's attacks on fbi agents, writing the as persians cast on them by the president and long time friend attorney general william barr are troubling in the extreme, calling fbi professionals scum as the president did is a slur against people that risk their lives to keep us safe. >> they destroyed the lives of people that were great people, that are still great people. their lives have been destroyed by scum. okay? by scum. >> the white house tried to undermine the democratic case for impeachment by wooing endangered democratic lawmakers in the house. the president was apparently able to persuade one congressman to switch parties, join the gop. other undecided democrats appear to be staying put in their party, announcing today that they will vote to impeach the president, not the kind of mass defections the white house was hoping for. as for giuliani, the president was asked earlier this afternoon

what he learned from his personal attorney after the trip to ukraine, the president responded to reporters not too much. wolf, that's not consistent with what giuliani told "the wall street journal." he told the president he found more than you can imagine. that's not consistent, wolf. >> good point indeed. thank you. let's get more on all of this. joining us, congressman from florida, you heard chuck schumer say he wants four officials current and former to testify. but house democrats, and you're a house democrat, you dropped the demand to hear from them, you thought it would take too long if there were subpoenas and court decisions. was that a mistake? >> i don't think so, wolf. i think that we had to move fairly quickly because if you remember, the inspector general brought this complaint, it was an urgent and credible complaint which is an imminent threat to democracy, there's an urgency

which is why we couldn't wait for the courts. we're going to continue demanding with the subpoena for them to testify. the president abused the power of his office by demanding a foreign government to investigate his political opponent, putting his private and personal gain before the interest of our country. so there's a national security issue here at hand. i think it is fine. i'm glad to see the senate minority leader schumer taking a stance against leader mcconnell. >> if the four individuals, officials, current and former testify, how important will that be? >> if you remember, it was the chief of staff, mulvaney, that said quid pro quo, it is okay, they do this all the time, and that's just not true. we have video of him admitting the president was asking a foreign government to interfere in our elections. that's one. also, john bolton in all of the evidence and fiona hill testified he was very concerned,

he didn't want to be part of this drug deal is what he called it. i think it would be interesting to hear from the two of them. >> if the senate majority, mitch mcconnell, said these four can testify, but in exchange, we want hunter biden and others to testify as well, would you go along with that? >> i'm going to leave that to the senate to decide. i can tell you what the republicans have done well is distract from the fact that the president of the united states has violated the law and has violated the constitution. they throw around conspiracy theories that were debunked, they were doing it during the hearing last week and i called them out on it. i think it is our responsibility to tell the american public the truth, not lie to them. >> do you trust the senate, that the senate will have a fair trial? >> at this point i am very concerned, wolf. i have heard senator graham and leader mcconnell saying they already know what they're going to do and haven't conducted the trial. i personally believe we may be

in the beginning stages of a constitutional crisis. if you have a separate branch of government acquiescing to the president of the united states, really violating separation of powers, this is extremely concerning and dangerous for the democracy. >> on the political front are you worried that the whole impeachment process could endanger some of your fellow freshman democrats? you won in a republican district, although trump didn't carry your district in 2016, hillary clinton did. are you worried some of your freshman colleagues might be in trouble if they volt fte for impeachment, 31 that won in trump districts? >> i am proud of my fellow delegates. foreign service officers that served our country and for them, it is not about politics and party, it is about protecting our democracy, about their duty

to protect the oath they took to protect the constitution. i think ultimately their constituents will be very proud to see the representatives put our country before the political allegiance. >> some of your fellow freshman democrats want justin amash to be one of the impeachment managers in a senate trial. he was a very conservative republican but split with donald trump and now some of your colleagues want him to serve as impeachment manager. do you agree? >> i saw that. i don't know him personally, that's what i told my colleague. i'll let the leadership decide that. i know they're going to make the right the choices. >> the concern a lot of democrats have is not one republican in the house of representatives, forget about justin amash who is a former republican, not one will go along and vote in favor of impeachment. it will be strictly on party lines. although there may be two, three, four democrats that vote with the republicans. >> i would ask my republican

colleagues if it is okay for the president of the united states to ask for foreign interference? they can't answer that question. i do want to speak with a couple of them that i think have been looking at all of the facts and all of the evidence. i wouldn't be surprised if one or two broke party lines and voted with us. again, what i'm seeing is that the republicans in congress here in washington, d.c. are not the party of trump, they're so loyal, engaged in a coverup when the evidence has been so clear, wolf. we've had nine different hearings. we had patriots come and testify. trump appointees saying it was very clear, it was a scheme going on for months now. >> let me get your reaction to rudy giuliani, the president's personal lawyer. he told "the new yorker" magazine that he played a key role getting rid of the b ambassador, marie yovanovitch. i believe i needed yovanovitch out of the way. she was going to make the

investigations difficult for everybody. how significant is that admission from the president's personal attorney? >> it is very significant, especially when you hear my republican colleagues say the president was just concerned about corruption. well, ambassador yovanovitch, her main focus had been battling corruption. for rudy giuliani who is not a state official, he is the personal attorney of the president, helping him in this scheme, trying to remove a career diplomat battling corruption should be telling to the american public. >> congresswoman, thanks for coming in. appreciate it very much. a lot going on. still ahead, more breaking news on boeing's plans for the controversial 737 max airliner. we have new information. we'll be right back. when you shop with wayfair,

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plane was grounded in march, they were positive, bullish by end of the year, the faa would approve the planes safe to fly. here we are, boeing announcing they'll suspend production of the troubled 737 max plane, will suspend production in january. worth pointing out first off, this is a big deal that they're doing this. they're saying this is a temporary pause in production. they're not doing away with the plane all together. here's the problem they found themselves in. last week in a meeting with the faa, the faa made it clear they were working on their own time line, not on boeing's time line. the faa made it very clear they would not clear the plane as safe to fly by end of the year. wins boeing realized that there really was no other way for them to go here, during the grounding they have been continuing to build the planes. in their statement today, they

say they have about 400 airplanes in storage. they can't deliver the planes to airlines if the faa hasn't certified the plane as safe. they find themselves in a position their backs were against the wall. they'll pause production on the plane until the faa says the plane is safe to fly, and the regulator said they don't expect that. >> it cost them? >> cost airlines hundreds of millions of dollars. it is clear the issue will not conclude this year. this will go well into 2020. >> over 350 died in the two plane crashes. thank you very much. coming up, much more on the political maneuvering going on right now over impeachment. the senate democratic leader chuck schumer wants witnesses to testify at president trump's senate trial. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right,

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in washington this afternoon, chuck schumer demanded republicans agree to hear from witnesses during president trump's likely

impeachment trial in the senate. schumer wants an agreement to call for testimony from among others the acting white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney, former presidential national security adviser john bolton. let's bring our experts and analysts to discuss. gloria, schumer claims he thinks some of the more moderate republicans will join him because the case is so strong. a simple majority one way or the other will determine if there are witnesses. >> right. and we don't know what the moderate republicans will do, and this is schumer's sort of opening offer to mitch mcconnell. we don't know what mitch mcconnell will say about it, he says we'll know more tomorrow, they're clearly negotiating in public which is never a good sign. i mean, when trent lott and tom daschle negotiated during bill clinton's impeachment, they did it privately, not publicly. the senate agreed on the rules. they all met in the old senate chamber and agreed on the rules

100 to 0. that's not going to happen this time. they agreed on the rules by the way, and afterwards they decided about witnesses. that's not the case this time. so schumer isn't going to get everything he wants. i think he probably knows it. will we get any witnesses at all? we don't know the answer to that. by the way, we don't know whether they say okay, you have to show up, what they would do. would they show up? would john bolton show up? could he plead the fifth? he has a court case pending about compelling his testimony. it is all very much up in the air. >> the republicans point out the democrats in the house had their chance to try to get witnesses to come in but they decided to not go with it, it would have taken too long to adjudicate in the courts. >> right. and in some cases the democratic argument for why they did that is what they were doing was the fact-finding part of this. the grand jury portion, where they collect as much as they can to bring charges.

what the senate is doing is having a trial and there are members of the senate saying we don't have enough information. they're wondering, they're saying i don't see enough evidence to say whether this is an impeachable offense. the democratic argument is that there is evidence out there to be gotten, and you can try to go get it or put your hands over your ears and say i don't want to listen any more. i think it is a different calculus because of what the senate is trying to do. they have to try to come to conclusion. the house was collecting as much as they can to say we think there's probable cause to move forward. >> will it make a difference if the republicans say you know what, we'll let the four witnesses that the democrats want appear, but we want hunter biden, for example, to come and testify as well, the whistle-blower. we want the whistle-blower to testify. congressman adam schiff has to testify. would they start getting into a battle like that?

>> i think everyone seems to think all of this is outlined in the constitution. it is not. the rules of how it works, witnesses called, how it is treated, is a senate agreement that set up just within the senate. is it possible? sure. i think it is very unlikely that democrats would agree to hunter biden or the whistle-blower, given what's happened in the house. >> 100% unlikely. >> there's a lot of water under that bridge. i don't think it will be a tit for tat trade off. my guess, mcconnell mentioned he will fill us in more tomorrow. my guess is you will hear an argument that manu and others reported on, the fact-finding part is over, this is the trial. if you wanted more facts, you should have waited and subpoenaed the people, let them subpoena in a way there were n

penalties. >> strongest point that schumer makes is that four witnesses the democrats want to testify, they really have a lot of firsthand knowledge of what was going on between the president and zelensky and the quid pro quo and all of that. >> yeah. they are witnesses who have firsthand accounts and are fact witnesses whose names were mentioned over and over throughout the hearings we saw take place in congress, and what you're going to hear from republicans is who cares, it doesn't matter. when we talk about comparing the two processes from today versus what we saw during clinton's impeachment, let's not fool ourselves, wasn't as if the times were a partisan utopia, you had some democrats acknowledge what the president did was wrong, whether it was impeachable was a different argument to be had. you have a president today that consistently says it was a perfect call. look at the transcript. i did nothing wrong. and you do not hear, i don't know of any house republicans,

and we heard from some senate republicans who have said they don't like what the president said and the call wasn't proper, but if it falls in line with what we heard from the house, if the president speaks out angrily, if essences that some senators are not defending his actions, then this could be a completely different direction. i think mitch mcconnell senses that, which is why he wants it to end quickly. >> quickly on this point, donald trump is doing a lot of the work for months, meeting with republican senators, not specifically on impeachment, but he has been working this. mcconnell saying he will closely coordinate gets a lot of attention, donald trump had groups of republican senators over for awhile. if you don't think it never came up, hey, guys, if the house i m impeaches me, he has been doing work to keep everybody aligned.

>> to convict and remove a president impeached from office, you need two-thirds, 67 senators. there are 53 republicans, 47 democrats. to simply get witnesses, you need a simple majority of 51. assuming all 47 democrats are united, and you try to get moderate republicans to say we want to hear from mick mulvaney and john bolton, susan collins, lisa murkowski, mitt romney, one or two others, potentially the democrats could win that fight. >> it could. the question is whether they're willing to cross the white house. it is clear the white house won't want anybody to testify unless the president. i mean, the president originally as we all know wanted to put on a big show. i think they convinced him to scale it back to a great degree, get it over with quickly. i don't know for a fact whether he has changed his mind or not, he has not told us that publicly. conceivably you could get some

republicans to go along with it. but i'm not clear. >> go ahead, sorry. >> i was going to say the president said he would one day release his tax returns, would be open to have others that work for him testify. >> everybody stick around. stand by. we have a lot more we are working on, including polls now, showing where the nation's voters stand on impeaching president trump and removing him from office. the epson ecotank. no more buying cartridges. look at all this ink it comes with. big ink tanks. lots of ink. no more cartridges. incredible amount of ink. the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. i feelbusiness cards...new logo...outdoor sign. you always get me. get free next business day shipping or ...1 hour in-store pick up. shopping season solved at office depot officemax ...or officedepot.com. same time next week. yes! hour 36 in the stakeout. ♪ limu emu & doug

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as the full house prepares for the historic vote on impeaching president trump, polls show voters are split whether he should be removed from office. david chalian is here. where does the nation land on impeaching the president? >> what's amazing about the numbers is how much they don't change radically over time. in the last 24 hours, saw three polls come out. quinnipiac poll, 45% say impeach and remove. 46% say so in the npr, pbs marist poll. 50% in a fox news poll. you see a narrow band between 45 and 50%. that's where we have been in the story on impeachment. it is nearly half the country that wants to see the president removed from office. but it is not a growing number. the president's team takes solace in that. >> what does it mean for the

president's re-election campaign? >> it is dangerous to think there's a huge impact. that presidential election campaign is nearly a year away. news cycles move really fast. it will be curious to see if voters have this top of mind. one clue that it is not having huge impact now, look at the general election matchups fox did in their poll. this election is not until next november. you see donald trump is from 40% of vote to 45% of vote, depending which democrat he's up against. that's about where he has been throughout this entire 2019. his number hasn't moved that much before impeachment, during impeachment, right now on the precipice of the vote. >> the president sees this is a fox poll, he is not happy. >> he doesn't love numbers that show him trailing the democrats. >> good work, david. thank you very much. coming up, new appeal to north korea as tension with kim jong-un regime grows. create your own ultimate feast is back at red lobster.

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the united states is making a new appeal to north korea to restart stalled denuclearization

talks. cnn's brian todd is working the story. tension with the kim jong-un regime has clearly been increasing. >> recent days, have seen tensions between the u.s. and north korea that we have not seen since 2017, including the name calling. tension has intelligence officials and analysts worried about a missile or bomb test from the regime, and america's top diplomat on north korea is trying desperately to head that off. kim jong-un's disdis steven began, about 30 miles from korea's north border talking about the weapons talks. that are stalled. >> let me speak directly to our counterparts in north korea. it's time for us to do our jobs. let's get this done. we are here and you know how to

reach us. >> reporter: a key question, could the north take him up on his offer about nuclear talks that have gone almost a year. >> i don't think they will. if you look at the negotiating behavior we haven't seen any verbal or action-based north korean steps towards denuclearization. >> reporter: in recent days there have been moves or statements from kim's regime nothing short of hostile or provocative. they conducted two important tests at its satellite facility. in addition, this is where he tested engines for long miss simms. priceless data and technologies and experience gained in the recent tests will be fully applied to the development of another strategic weapons and the north koreans would use it

for overpowering the nuclear threat of the u.s. >> reporter: what type of strategic weapons is he likely referring to? >> definitely something longer rang than the short range missiles. in the range of an icbm or a nuclear test. >> reporter: north korea's ambassador said talks are off the table and north korea threatened to send a christmas 50 to the u.s. there has also been a return to name-calling. >> he likes sending up rockets up, doesn't he? that's why i call him "rocket man." >> reporter: the north korea calling with insults, call president trump a dotard. today, he seemed to issue a threat about another weapons threat. >> i would be disappointed if something would be in the works and if it is we'll take care of it. we'll see. we're watching it very closely.

>> reporter: some experts believe kim is making a last push before his self-imposed nuclear deadline for talks arise. but the latest shows the supreme leader may not have ever been serious about giving up his weapons. >> we have to remember nobody has ever enticed the north koreans into good behavior. president trump has tried that for a year and a half. clearly it hasn't worked. >> analysts say one of president trump's few good options left to take the momentum back and pressure kim jong-un to really giving something in nuclear talks is to tighten sanctions against north korea more seriously, put pressure on the chinese banks that do business with kim and pressure the russians and south koreans to cut the flow of cash to the dictator. at that point, kim might have little choice left but to get serious with trump and start to dismantle at least part of his

arsenal. >> there's particular concern what kind of tests the north koreans may conduct in the days ahead if they do conduct a test. >> right. analysts saying within a month they may retest the intercapability of international missiles that can reach the u.s. if they find they can survive in the atmosphere after they're fired, the threat to the u.s. is going to be more disturbing than it has ever been. coming up, as impeachment looms over the president, who might be called as witnesses. tem braava jet breaks up messes and gets deep in corners. braava jet. only from irobot. wean air force veteran made of doing what's right,.

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happening now, impeachment demands, even before the house votes on articles of impeachment, the top senate democrat is laying groundwork for putting the president on trial. is there any chance republicans will agree to his high profile witness list? out of the way. rudy guilliani admits why he wanted the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine ousted,

all about protecting his hunt for dirt on the bidens. tonight, the president has nothing but gushing praise for his lawyer. i was wrong, after years of defending the fbi russia probe, the former director james comey ood mitts mistakes were wrong. why wasn't he wrong before the investigation? i'm wolf blitzer, you're in the "situation room." admits mistakes. we're following the partisan warfare as president trump is expected to be impeached by the house of representatives in less than 48 hours. tonight, both parties are already looking ahead to a senate trial. senate democrat chuck schumer says the senate needs to call